Canned goods could become more expensive due to the Trump’s administration new 50% duty on imported steel, reported the Wall Street Journal. “Cans used for food require tin-coated, ultrathin sheet steel made from molten iron. Not much is produced in the U.S., where domestic producers have been scaling back production for years.”
The prices of steel cans could go up by 9% to 15%, according to the Consumer Brands Association, meaning the price of a can of vegetables costing $2 could increase by 18 to 30 cents.
“The American consumer is going to pay more for their cans,” said Dan Dietrich, vice president for strategy at Trivium Packaging.
“President Trump on June 4 doubled the previous 25% tariffs on imported steel, aiming to increase demand for domestic steel by making cheaper, foreign-made metal more expensive. Tariffs are likely to drive up prices for domestic-made steel, too, as U.S. producers raise their own prices,” wrote WSJ.
Can manufacturers reportedly said they will continue to buy lots of imported tin-coated steel, known as tin-plate—because there isn’t enough of it made in the United States to supply them. “Can manufacturers estimate that about three-quarters of tin-plate consumed in the U.S. is foreign-made, with much of it coming from Europe and Canada,” wrote the Journal.
Nearly 1.5 million tons of tin-plate were imported last year, about 37% more than in 2015, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
The Consumer Brands Association said as many as 20,000 U.S. jobs in food-can manufacturing could be at risk if the tariff on tin-plate causes consumers to shy away from higher-priced canned goods and food companies migrate to alternative packaging.
The rest of the Trump administration tariffs are currently up in the air after in late May a panel of federal judges in New York blocked President Donald Trump from imposing tariffs on China and other U.S. trading partners. The judges found that “federal law did not grant him ‘unbounded authority’ to tax imports from nearly every country around the world.”